TODAY, it might be called sedition. Back in 1983, though, it was mostly your typical gathering of Bombay’s Marxist literati. Sitting at the centre of a white dias on Prithvi Theatre’s stage, the illustrious Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai was telling stories of her travels as the audience erupted in anarchic laughter every few moments. But as joyous as the occasion was, its intentions were serious. Minutes earlier, the poet Ali Sardar Jafri, who sat to Chughtai’s right, had recited poems “for every country in the Third World that was facing injustice and oppression.” At the other end of the dias was the poet and film lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, who had recited verses about political leaders stealing the voices of ordinary people. And earlier that evening, AK Hangal, the event’s compere and an actor best known for films such as Sholay and Aaina, had introduced a choir that sang a Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem about workers rising up to claim their rights.
But this event was about none of these stars or the broad, unnamed revolution in which they all believed. It was about expressing solidarity with a particular cause and a particular person—the woman who sat hunched, on Chughtai’s left. A floral-printed sari pulled around her shoulders, the woman puffed a cigarette on stage. Throughout the evening, she opened a little book and, in a thin but commanding voice, read out poems. One about India’s Emergency under Indira Gandhi. Another about women overthrowing dictators. Another in the form of a postcard sent by political prisoners. The audience clapped and roared in admiration, even though the woman was unfamiliar to most of them. Fleeing the possibility of a death penalty, she had arrived in India from across the border only two years earlier. Her name was Fahmida Riaz. And this event, held in her honour, was called “Ek Shaam Pakistan Ke Naam”—“An Evening for Pakistan.”
IN THE EARLY 1980s, India and Pakistan’s relationship was frostier than usual. A decade earlier, in 1971, the two countries had fought a pivotal war, which had led to Pakistan’s second partition and the creation of the new state of Bangladesh. Pakistan, which was left with a diminished population, territory and military power, decried this loss as an Indian conspiracy. In the coming years, Pakistan would invest heavily in shoring up its military arsenal, including a controversial nuclear programme. India, on the other hand, emerged as the victor, imprisoning 90,000 Pakistani troops and controlling larger tracts of Kashmir. India also affirmed itself as a significant player in Cold War international politics, now acknowledged as the top regional power by both the American and Soviet blocs. Despite signing a peace treaty in 1972, India and Pakistan would remain only cautiously neighbourly in the decades to come.